Federal Liberals leadership race

CalgaryGrit has a rundown of the debate between Ignatieff and Leblanc, two of contenders in the race for the Leaderships of the Liberal Party. The third one, Bob Rae, boycotted the debate because Ignatieff would not agree to let him to change the rules at the last minute; the debate was supposed to be private with no media but Rae wanted to let them in. It seems like a very juvenile move by Rae. But the media blackout does not extend to blog so CalgaryGrit was able to report to us what was said. Here is the answer I found the most fascinating:

Green Shift?

Ignatieff - "The voters have spoken on The Green Shift"

LeBlanc - "The Green Shift was a major hurdle to our candidates in many ridings across the country"

Both candidates for leadership agree that giving the environment a priority was a mistake. This should give pause on those talking about the inevitable onward march of environmentalism. As I have said before, people care more to be seen and to think of themselves as pro environment rather than to actually bear the cost of true pro environment policies. That is why the Green Shift failed, Dion asked Canadians to pay for what they claimed they believed while all they wanted were symbolic gestures that could make them feel not-American, like signing Kyoto but doing nothing to curb CO2 emissions.